Happy 75th birthday to Phil Villapiano! Villapiano played linebacker from 1971 to 1979 for the Oakland Raiders, and from 1980 to 1983 for the Buffalo Bills. He was chosen for the Pro Bowl four straight years with the Raiders, and he was a starter on the Raiders team that beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI.
Today’s card of the day is Villapiano’s 1974 Wonder Bread card. It is one of 30 cards in the 1974 Wonder Bread set, which were unevenly distributed among the 26 NFL teams of the day. (The Raiders, for example, got four cards, while the Dallas Cowboys got none.) The cards were printed by Topps, and they resemble 1971 Topps and 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL cards.
Villapiano’s card, like those of all defensive players in the set, has a yellow border. I like it! The cards of the offensive players, punter, and kicker have red backgrounds. The use of different colors for offense and defense was novel and fun, but I wish the designers had used a color other than red for the offensive players. Why not green or orange or purple to distinguish them from the 1971 Topps and O-Pee-Chee cards? Reusing red was a bit lazy, in my opinion.
Villapiano appeared numerous other cards, too–an impressive array for a linebacker. You can see more of his cards and the full set of 1974 Wonder Bread cards in the Gallery.
